- Trump names Will Scharf as White House counsel ahead of midterms
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“United States President Donald Trump has named White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf as his next White House counsel, elevating a longtime legal ally to one of the administration’s most important legal positions months before November’s midterm elections. The former Trump lawyer, who worked on the presidential immunity case and later oversaw approval of the president’s disputed White House ballroom project, will replace David Warrington on September 1, with Warrington leaving the administration for the private sector.” (08/10/26)
- UK: Count Binface seeks Parliament seat
Source: ABC News
“Timing is everything in comedy and, so it seems, in British politics for a perennial joke candidate who wears a garbage can on his head. Count Binface, a self-described intergalactic space warrior, has landed in the center of the U.K.’s political universe ahead of a special election Thursday that was derided as a farce long before the ballot was packed with nearly three dozen candidates — many from the silly end of the spectrum. Binface, who has run against prime ministers past and present, was the first to throw his bucket in the ring when Reform UK leader Nigel Farage abruptly quit Parliament and said he would seek reelection to clear his name over financial allegations. … when the major political parties denounced Farage’s move as a political stunt and boycotted the Clacton-on-Sea election in southeastern England, the trash-talking comedian was launched into prime position as default challenger. He has been on a nonstop media blitz since.” (08/10/26)
- PA: Libertarian Gubernatorial Ticket Qualifies for November Ballot
Source: Independent Political Report
“Ken Krawchuk and John Thomas, the Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial ticket, have officially completed the signature petitioning process and qualified for the state’s general election ballot this November. … Though certified, the ticket’s nomination papers still remain subject to a challenge through the state’s objection period, which runs until August 10. In the event that happens, Pennsylvania courts then have until August 18 to determine their outcome. … The Libertarian ticket joins incumbent Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro and Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis, Republican nominees Stacy Garrity and Jason Richey, and Green nominees Anthony Dastra and Craig Bolton, all of whom have also qualified.” (08/09/26)
- Russia: Thirteen killed in Nizhnekamsk drone strikes
Source: NBC News
“A Ukrainian drone attack Monday on the Russian city of Nizhnekamsk killed 13 people and wounded 38 others, authorities in the Tatarstan region said. Ukraine has targeted Russian oil facilities with long-range drones almost daily in recent months. The barrage has caused fuel shortages in Russia, eaten into Russian refining capacity, and unsettled the Russian public. … Nizhnekamsk is roughly 750 miles east of the Ukrainian border and has a population of about 240,000. The city is an important oil refining hub, home to two refineries and a petrochemical plant.” (08/10/26)
- Oil prices climb as Iranian demands cloud outlook for Strait of Hormuz
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Oil prices are climbing as Iran’s latest demands for reopening the Strait of Hormuz dampen hopes for a return to stability in global energy markets. Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose more than 1 percent on Monday as Tehran’s insistence that the critical waterway will not reopen without major concessions from the United States stoked market anxiety. … Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday that while Iran and Oman were close to an agreement on Hormuz, the waterway would not reopen until Washington met certain conditions, including easing sanctions on Tehran and paying war reparations.” (08/10/26)
- FDA names major brands hit by massive lettuce recall over parasite
Source: Independent [UK]
“A new Food and Drug Administration report details a massive produce recall linked to a nationwide cyclospora outbreak, involving nearly 240,000 cases of lettuce. The recall, initiated by supplier Taylor Farms, was due to potential cyclospora contamination in iceberg and romaine lettuce, some mixed with other vegetables. Walmart’s Marketside brand received the largest share of the recalled produce with 109,476 cases, and major fast-food chains like Subway, Yum! Brands (Taco Bell) and Jack in the Box also removed thousands of cases.” (08/09/26)
- HI: Democratic incumbent fends off challenger from “left” in congressional primary
Source: Reuters
“U.S. Representative Ed Case easily fended off a Democratic primary challenge from a progressive rival for one of Hawaii’s congressional seats, election results showed late Saturday. Case’s victory over Jarrett Keohokalole, 43, marks the latest front of the battle roiling U.S. Democratic politics in which seasoned lawmakers have been pitted against more progressive newcomers. Case, 73, won 57% of the votes in his district, compared with Keohokalole’s 34%, official results showed. Neither could be reached immediately for comment on Sunday. Three others had also sought the Democratic nomination for the Honolulu-based district that is seen as safely Democratic.” (08/09/26)
- Syria: Regime Agrees to Reorganized Russian Military Presence
Source: New York Times
“Syria and Russia have come to an agreement reorganizing Moscow’s military presence in the country after more than a year and a half of negotiations, the Syrian foreign ministry announced on Sunday. … The Syrian foreign ministry announcement on Sunday said the two countries had reached a memorandum of understanding that outlines a reorganized Russia’s presence on the Syrian coast, at the Hmeimim Air Base outside the city of Latakia and at the Tartus naval port, according to state media. Civilian facilities will be transferred to Syrian government management and gradually integrated into the country’s civilian administration, and Russian military bases will be turned into joint training centers, according to the ministry.” (08/09/26)
- Why the Trump administration will have to accept a Hormuz toll
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Dan DePetris“Of course, permitting an Iranian toll or fee structure isn’t ideal. Before the war, such a hypothetical would have been difficult to imagine. The strait at that time was free and open, and roughly 120 to 150 ships relied on the route each day to get their products to customers worldwide. The United States wants Iran to return to this status quo. Yet Iran has no intention of doing so — and to expect otherwise is to be completely ignorant of how events have played out since. Trump’s war handed Iran the perfect excuse to leverage its geography, and the Iranians didn’t hesitate to do so.” (08/10/26)
- Will Trump Revive America’s Filibustering Habit?
Source: Libertarian Institute
by José Niño“Men with rifles, investors with appetites, and consultants with slide decks have always read a permissive Washington as an invitation, and America has a long-forgotten tradition of citizens who accepted taking military action without waiting for orders from DC. They were called filibusters, from the Spanish filibustero, borrowed in turn from the Dutch word for freebooter. The practice began in the 1790s, when Americans plotted private assaults on Spanish possessions to the south and British Canada to the north. Congress answered with the Neutrality Act of 1794 and a tougher version in 1818, making it a federal crime to launch a military expedition from American soil against a nation at peace with the United States. Americans flouted both for seventy years.” (08/10/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/will-trump-revive-americas-filibustering-habit
- Can Ants Teach Us Anything About Free Markets?
Source: Students For Liberty
by Ilia Zhuzhunashvili“Observing a single ant often reveals little about the organization of ant behavior. Its movements may appear erratic: it changes direction, retraces its path, pauses, and resumes without any obvious plan. Considered in isolation, the ant does not seem to act with clear purpose or coordination. The colony, however, presents a very different picture. What appears disordered at the level of the individual can become highly structured at the level of the group. When a source of food is introduced, ants may rapidly establish a direct and efficient route between the nest and the food. The resulting trail can resemble a carefully planned transport network. Yet no individual ant designs the route, issues instructions, or oversees the movement of the colony.” (08/10/26)
https://studentsforliberty.org/blog/can-ants-teach-us-anything-about-free-markets/
- The Barbarous Relic’s Revenge
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by George Ford Smith“For Americans, the gold standard was killed by presidential decree during the crisis of the Great Depression. In 1971, another president told foreigners they could no longer get gold for American dollars and thus removed the last trace of monetary gold from international trade. Since then all governments have been on a fiat money standard, depreciating their currencies as a matter of policy. The story of gold’s disappearance is part of a larger narrative about the growth of government. Besides being a check on bank counterfeiting, or inflation, gold is also a serious restriction on government expansion. For the advocates of big government, therefore, gold becomes a barbarous relic that stands in their way.” (08/10/26)
- You Want a Real Commie?
Source: The American Conservative
by Bill Kauffman“Fox World is all a-twitter because a handful of members or fellow travelers of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are about to be elected to the U.S. Congress and various state legislatures. They’re ‘godless communists,’ according to President Trump, and what with inflation, an insane war, and Trump family grift, we’ll be hearing about commies all election season. Michael ‘The Other America’ Harrington, founder of DSA, was about as threatening as the Mills Brothers. The current DSA candidates seem, at first glance, as off-putting as your typical hectoring grad-school wokester, but I can’t get too worked up over them. After all, New York City once sent a real communist to Congress—and his example complicates the Sean Hannity narrative.” (08/10/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/you-want-a-real-commie/
- Public presence, public duty
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton“Is it reasonable to say that libertarians, and even lovers of liberty who are rational, free-market, anarchists, believe that members of a community do have some public duties? Even while we recognize that people have a God-given right to reject those duties, just as they have the right to stupidly refuse to accept responsibility for their actions?” (08/09/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/08/09/public-presence-public-duty/
- The Choice: Peace and Civilization or War and AI?
Source: The Realist Review
by Val Aksilenko“Artificial intelligence may be among the most valuable gifts the Creator has given humanity. It can help us understand languages, cure diseases, reduce exhausting labor, overcome ignorance, anticipate disasters, restore nature, expose deception, and help hostile peoples understand one another. But perhaps every great gift is also a test. … The peril is not that artificial intelligence will suddenly become malevolent in a human-like sense. The greatest peril is that it will become obedient to human enmity — that we will embed our accumulated fear, hatred, falsehoods, and ambitions within an intelligence that is more powerful and faster than ourselves.” (08/09/26)
https://therealistreview.substack.com/p/the-choice-civilization-or-ai
- Drugs For Poor Countries
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman“Medical drugs have large fixed costs, the costs of research, development and testing, low marginal cost, the cost of making one more pill. If the company sells the drug at marginal cost everyone to whom it is worth at least the cost of producing the pill gets it but the company never covers the fixed cost; if it keeps doing that it goes out of business. If it sells the drug at a price enough above marginal cost to pay back the initial expenditure many people who value the pill above the cost of producing it do not get it. The solution is price discrimination, selling the drug at a high price to customers who are willing to pay it, at a low price to customers who are not. In practice this usually means selling the drug at a high price in rich countries and a low price in poor countries.” (08/09/26)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/drugs-for-poor-countries
- A Transgender Gospel Against Western Civilization
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid“They say that the arch of history bends towards progress but as a trans person in the midst of the second decade of the twenty-first century, I find myself torn at the crossroads of an increasingly bewildering age. On the one hand, transgender and gender diverse people in the West have never experienced a greater level of exposure and popular acceptance. On the other hand, these same trans people, my people, have also never faced a greater threat of state sanctioned violence and outright erasure.” (08/09/26)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2026/08/a-transgender-gospel-against-western.html
- Anthony Fauci and the Collapse of Scientific Authority
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Jason Locasale“nthony Fauci is now facing intense scrutiny. His diaries, emails, and testimony have raised fundamental questions about what he knew, what he told the public, and how he exercised authority during the pandemic. Many outside academia describe this as his fall from grace, while universities and medical institutions continue to celebrate him as a heroic public servant and scientific authority. That contradiction is the starting point for this essay. Fauci matters not only because of his individual conduct, but because he exposes the institutions that produced, empowered, and continue to protect him.” (08/09/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/anthony-fauci-and-the-collapse-of-scientific-authority/
- The Normalcy of American Wars
Source: Antiwar.com
by Andrew P Napolitano“For much of American history, presidents have steadily accumulated the power to wage war while Congress has gradually surrendered the constitutional authority that the Framers explicitly entrusted to it. This transformation has weakened constitutional checks and balances, expanded executive power beyond its constitutional limits, claimed millions of lives, cost trillions of dollars, and repeatedly drawn the United States into conflicts that had little or nothing to do with defending America. The Constitution is remarkably clear on the question of war. Article I grants Congress — not the president — the power to declare war. The president, under Article II, wages war, but only after Congress has authorized it.” (08/07/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/andrew-p-napolitano/2026/08/06/the-normalcy-of-american-wars
- Attack of the $20 Burrito!
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp“Yes, things cost more than they used to. That’s always the case, but it’s been MORE the case over the last few years. While there are various reasons for that, the biggest one is taxes, and the most pernicious, if not always the largest annual, tax is inflation.” (08/09/26)
- Redistributing Wealth Means Redistributing Power to the State
Source: Cato Institute
by Paul Meany“The redistribution of wealth has once again become a central demand of American progressivism. Figures such as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren argue that extreme concentrations of wealth should not merely be taxed to finance government programs but actively reduced through policies such as annual wealth taxes. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Zohran Mamdani have advanced similar arguments in favor of shifting resources from the wealthy toward public services, income supports, and social programs. Behind these proposals lies a broader moral claim: the state is justified in redistributing concentrations of private wealth for public purposes. The deepest objection to these policies is not economic but political and moral.” (08/07/26)
https://www.cato.org/blog/when-government-redistributes-wealth-it-redistributes-power
- Will The Two Cults Finally Fall?
Source: The Weekly Dish
by Andrew Sullivan“The cult of Trump and the cult of wokeness are taking huge hits from reality.” (08/07/26)
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/will-the-two-cults-finally-fall-854
- The rise or fail of middle powers will determine Middle East peace
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Gabrielle Rifkind & Tom Pickering“For more than two decades, endless wars have destabilized the Middle East, creating huge amounts of human suffering, displacement and trauma. The region is exhausted, with little faith in the possibility of peace and few structures to enable it. The region is now at an inflection point; it can continue endless violence or undertake serious mediation and conflict resolution. The war with Iran has exposed the limits of U.S. military power, leaving only one practical option on the table: pursuing negotiations that recognize the balance of power in the region and the security concerns of all parties. This requires very careful engagement and mediation.” (08/07/26)
- “Lie to People Who Want to be Lied to”: How to Make a Political Fortune as a Far-Left Democrat
Source: Jonathan Turley
by Jonathan Turley“A financial journalist once offered simple advice: ‘Lie to people who want to be lied to, and you’ll get rich … Tell the truth to those who want to be lied to, and you’ll go broke.’ That axiom appears to have been taken to heart by radical Democratic candidates who this week issued transparent denials of past outrageous comments. Their calculus is clearly that the last thing that voters want to hear is the truth about their past views. Certain cultural touchstones are considered inviolate in some states, such as beef in Texas. … Texas Democratic Senatorial candidate James Talarico was roasted after a video surfaced of his calling to reduce meat consumption and ‘I am proud to say that our campaign has officially become a non-meat campaign. We are only buying vegan products from our local vegan businesses’.” (08/08/26)
- Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 08/09/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Pentagon Strategy To Emphasize Tactical Nukes, Trump Says US-Iran ‘Semi-Negotiating,’ and More.” (08/09/26)
- Free Talk Live, 08/09/26
Source: Free Talk Live
“Feet juice lemonade :: Turd Ferguson calls about nothing worth hearing :: Dave Ridley calls about USexit :: Sarah in NM calls about vitamins but just talks about Texas :: Skeeter calls about secession :: the best, most proper path to freedom :: 2026-08-09 Hosts: Stu, Rich E. Rich, Mark Edge.” (08/09/26)
- Glenn Greenwald on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Glenn Greenwald joins the show to discuss the recent victories of several anti-establishment left-wing candidates in Democratic primaries and the shifts in American politics more broadly.” (08/09/26)
https://scotthorton.org/interviews/8-7-26-glenn-greenwald-on-how-american-politics-is-changing/
- Unattended Baggage, episode 351
Source: Unattended Baggage
“Civilization version 2.0?” (08/08/26)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-351-civilization-version